Donald Duong

Kayo mobile app showing upcoming Las Vegas GP qualifying and race

It’s appearing on the mobile app

A Discord chat filled with blocked and ignored messages from blocked and ignored users

The ideal Discord experience

Katamari merch: A shirt, a tote bag, two magnets, a coaster, a copy of Once Upon a Katamari and a Katamari Damacy soundtrack

In hindsight, I probably should have gotten the PlayStation version of Once Upon a Katamari.

Coasters of Snorlax, Pikachu, Quaxley, Sableye, Kirby, Quina Quen and the Prince of All Cosmos. A Kirby Cafe spoon, a Toyota Museum spoon, a Pokémon soup spoon and a Pokémon pair of chopsticks.

I’m about to throw the best tea parties.

<runs to Bluesky, out of breath> Has…has anyone called it the GabeCube yet?!

Two Nintendo Museum keychain boxes, two Nintendo Store keychains, a Nintendo Museum entry card, and a Nintendo Museum Official Book

Some more Nintendo pickups from the trip. The Wii Remote cushion didn’t fit in the picture.

A collection of store-exclusive Pikachu plush (Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Taiwan, Tokyo Station, Narita Airport, Tokyo Skytree, Nagoya), flanked by a Mimikyu, a Teddiursa and a trainer

The Pokémon plush I acquired in the recent trip. I swear I don’t have a problem.

Imagine a world without Pop Vinyls

Went to see Twice! For the third time!

I’m hoping for Australian redemption in the Ashes after the Women’s Cricket World Cup.

The museum is still very reachable from nearby cities. I was staying in Osaka and it took me about 50 minutes by the local metro network.

A jumbo-sized Wii Remote pillow laid behind a Taipei Pikachu

After three weeks of travelling around Taiwan and Japan, I am back in Australia. And I brought back something silly.

Google Shopping search for “bidet toilet seat”

The traditional post-Japan trip web search

My holiday stretched over two months so I had two bites at the cherry; lost the first raffle but won the second.
Don’t be afraid to put in a later-afternoon time slot. It’s not the ideal experience but you still get to be in the room.

The entrance to the Nintendo Museum grounds

A display titled “A succession of ideas” featuring Nintendo’s movement-based projects including the Ultra Hand and the Ring Con

A silhouetted player is shooting a NES Zapper at an attractions screen

The Nintendo Museum merch store, featuring Wii Remote pillows

A pilgrimage completed at the Nintendo Museum

‘Get me Danny Elfman!’
‘He’s unavailable.’
‘Then get me his non-union Mexican equivalent!’

There’s a tweet lamenting the lack of historical titles played by young games writers. Context is good and all, but good writing and unique insights can come from so many other sources than just playing older games.
Not to mention the undercurrent of ‘Oh you like video games? Name all of them.’

Forget everything else, my Game of the Year for 2025 is the minigame that you can play on the TV during the Japanese baseball broadcast.

There are few things more gauche than posing for photos — or even worse, taking a selfie — in front of the Hiroshima bomb memorials.

A Toyota Supra is displayed in front of an image of the Berlin Wall being destroyed

Thank you, Toyota Supra, for single-handedly tearing down the Berlin Wall 🫡

The interior of the Final Fantasy IX cafe

A Moogle sundae and a beef hoagie with a ‘counterfeit ticket’ wrapping

A cocoa with black foam, two yellow dots and a biscuit hat, styled to look like Vivi

Part of a post-it note wall. One message reads “Remake FFIX, please and thank you. From Australia”

One more collab cafe in Tokyo, this time the Final Fantasy IX one.

The Kirby Cafe, featuring a Whispy Woods tree centrepiece

A meal served in a Carby-shaped bento box

A pancake topped with a Kirby ice-cream scoop

The Kirby Cafe photo spot: I am about to thrust an oversized fork into Kirby

The Tokyo collab cafes do not stop. Today was the Kirby Cafe.

Indeed it is. I *had* to pick it up when I was there last week, alongside the bubble tea Teddiursa.

A giant chef Pikachu entertaining patrons at the Pokémon Cafe

A plush Pikachu looking at a giant chef Pikachu in the background

A curry, with the rice in the shape and colour of a Pikachu, in front of a plush Pikachu.

A curry, the rice Pikachu has had its head smooshed in. Behind it is a plush Pikachu lying on its face.

The very first thing I did when I arrived in Tokyo last night: Plopped down at the Pokémon Cafe

A bird puppet with a Mariners cap and a pained expression: “It hurts to live”

Me, a Mariners fan, seeing the result of today’s baseball game

Shelves of Pokémon merch, including: Tea pots, tea infusion cups, lanyards, towels and plushes of Pikachu, Dragonite and Teddirusa

Some of the location-exclusive merch at the Pokémon Center Taipei is pretty good. I’ve already got the Pikachu, I might also grab that bubble tea Teddirusa.

Same as it ever was

Pokémon Go screenshot confirming I have reached level 69

Nice.

When in Rome. I’m pretty sure there is broadcast footage of me joining in the yeeting.

I paid too much for my nosebleed seat. But as a consolation prize, I was next to the door where Jey Uso made his entrance.